56 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
other, Nature effects that both these fish shall hold its place 
in the population of the sea—hold it, and no more. 
The reproduction of the perch is conducted on the spend- 
thrift or broadcast system. It is usually calculated that a 
female perch of half a pound in weight contains upwards 
of a quarter of a million eggs, while Picot, of Geneva, reported 
that the ovary of a single female weighing one pound contained 
no less than 992,000. At this rate, the crop of spawn in 
a single season from a shoal of perch suggests an amazingly 
rapid increase in the species ; but such is the avidity of water- 
fowl, water-insects, and fish of other species for this gratuitous 
supply of food, that only a small percentage of the eggs ever 
reach the hatching point. Even so, towards the end of summer 
countless numbers of perch fry may be seen swarming in quiet 
corners and shallow bays ; and these, again, have to run the 
gauntlet of innumerable foes, including, as mentioned above, 
their own blood relations. 
While on the subject of perch fry, I may put on record an 
incident which, occurring many autumns ago, set at rest for 
The hear ever, so far as I, at least, was concerned, the vexed 
ing of fish. Hroblem whether fish can hear. The fact that fish 
possess ears might be assumed as an answer to the question, but 
the additional facts that they possess no external ear-covers, and 
that the skin covers the opening to the auditory chamber, 
are quite enough to account for the prevalent belief that fish 
have no ears, and therefore cannot hear. The fry of perch 
were the means by which I received ocular demonstration to the 
contrary. 
In still, bright October weather I had set up my easel on 
the shore of Loch Ken, in Galloway. The water was calm and 
very clear, and as I was painting I noticed that near the 
margin it was peopled by multitudes of tiny perch. Towards 
the afternoon a party of partridge-shooters appeared in a turnip 
field fully three-quarters of a mile from where I was sitting. 
Presently one of them fired a shot. The report came clearly, 
wt 
